LUBBOCK, Texas — In a game of huge momentum shifts, Kansas State rallied, let it slip away and rallied once more.

A team that had lost six straight road games could easily have folded once again, but this time the Wildcats buckled down and pulled out a 60-56 victory over Texas Tech on Tuesday at United Spirit Arena.

“A lot of things didn’t go well throughout the game,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We kept talking about how bad do you want it, keep fighting and keep believing and good things will happen.

“We made the plays and the ball bounced our way. We’ve been in the situation a whole bunch and you’re just hoping and praying something good will happen to us, and it did.”

K-State (19-9, 9-6 Big 12), which was down by one point at halftime, trailed by nine early in the second half when the light flipped on. They put together a dazzling 20-5 run, ignited by a three-point play by Wesley Iwundu and Marcus Foster’s hot shooting. Foster scored nine points in the run with a pair of 3-pointers, adding a free throw on the second trey for a four-point play.

“Marcus was very slow and lethargic at the beginning of the game but he sure had a nice three- or four-minute stretch when we outscored them 20-5,” Weber said.

That surge gave the Wildcats a 54-47 lead with 4:33 to play. K-State was seemingly in firm control, but Texas Tech (13-15, 5-10) responded with nine unanswered points to go on top 56-54 with 1:19 remaining.

Suddenly, it appeared the Wildcats were doomed to a seventh straight road loss.

“I know me personally, I had that feeling like here we go, it’s going to happen again,” said Foster, who scored a game-high 17 points. “Our leaders brought us together and told us to finish this game. They said they made a little run but now let’s finish this game off like we finish games at home.”

And that’s what the Cats did.

Iwundu made a layup and was fouled, completing the three-point play at the free-throw line. Tech’s Jaye Crockett missed a 3-point shot, Iwundu rebounded and with 19 seconds left Will Spradling was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws for a 58-56 lead.

The Red Raiders still had a chance but Robert Turner turned the ball over. Foster came away with the steal and tossed the ball downcourt for a clinching layup by Iwundu.

“We just played our defense,” Spradling said of Tech’s final possession. “I really don’t know what happened. He (Turner) dribbled to the corner and it allowed him to get trapped and Marcus did a great job grabbing the ball and just throwing it because there wasn’t much time left.”

The Wildcats escaped with a victory, easing a great burden that had been building as the road losses mounted.

“We just kept coming at them,” said Spradling, who scored nine points to reach 1,000 in his career. “We kept playing hard, and that’s something we’ve had a problem with on the road. We’ll have moments where we’ll stop playing hard and they’ll make big runs. Tonight they made runs but in those runs we were still playing hard and made runs right back at them.

“We had some balls bounce our way at the end of the game tonight and other games we’ve had some balls bounce the other team’s way. We were kind of due for one, I guess.”